Severe storm causes tons of damage in Adel - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Severe storm causes tons of damage in Adel

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Source: Jon Blake and Audie Rowe Source: Jon Blake and Audie Rowe
Source: Jon Blake and Audie Rowe Source: Jon Blake and Audie Rowe
Source: Jon Blake and Audie Rowe Source: Jon Blake and Audie Rowe

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Firefighters in Adel were still out Tuesday working on a fire that roared for hours after a lightning strike last night.

The fire destroyed a vacant doctor's building and that wasn't the only storm-related damage in the area.

Wind gusts up to 70-miles per hour knocked down trees and damaged property.

Firefighters put out hot spots after lightning struck one of the air ducts at a doctor's building on Parrish Avenue Monday night. 30 firefighters were working the fire for 11 hours straight. The fire chief says they poured about 2,000 gallons of water on the blaze each minute.

"For 39 years I've never seen one you could not drown," said Adel Fire Chief Jimmy Walker. "We literally drowned this thing and it wouldn't go out. It's just an unusual thing to me."

Annie Grant and her granddaughter were inside this mobile when a tree fell on it. When the rain started she put the windows down.

"I was letting the windows down and on the last one the tree came in and I just got of the way and it knocked me down me and the baby," said Grant.

They had to crawl out.

"I just said thank you Jesus we're still alive," said Grant.

And storm tracker Rick Lipscomb says he was eating at this Western Sizzlin when the shingles began to peel off. Several others businesses had their roofs damaged. This drive thru sign at Taco Bell is now a see through sign. The 9-1-1 tower in Cook County was bent in half. We're told it's still functioning. Viewers even saw hail.

"These are straight line winds from the thunderstorm," said Lipscomb. "These storms can go from an average thunderstorm and can pulse up to severe in a blink of an eye."

The storm was so severe Monday night that it picked up this roofing from a neighboring business about 100 yards away. Wind carried it over here and crushed these trucks here at Cook County Ford."

These storms can happn instantaneously and that's why it's important to have an emergency plan in place.

The fire chief says it was difficult to access that burning building Monday night because it had two roofs made of tar and rocks with no crawl space.

Firefighters even had to take breaks and nap in the streets last night because it took so long to fight that fire.

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